Shadow
by v1nyl scratch
Summary: When a foal is born with wings that didn't work, he is abandoned at an orphanage, a mysterious person convinces him to help an organization. involves Celestia towards end. Prequel to Aponymous's story the Mysterious Alicorn. Thanks Aponymous! First story
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"You are doing great!" The doctor. The Pegasus mare grunted in reply as she gave one final heave. "Aaand… there we are." The doctor said as he carefully cradled the Pegasus foal in his arms. He handed the foal to the nurse who walked to the ward for all newborns. She laid the foal down and it let out a small cry before going to sleep. She noticed its wings weren't yet folded but took no notice.

The doctor conversed with the father about the foal. "He seemed perfectly healthy, visually." The doctor said as he began to measure out sugar water for the mother. 'Yet another great delivery' he thought to himself. He brought the sugar water to the mother and she took it and drank deeply. "how is he?" she inquired after drinking. "Great. Nothing to worry ab…" the doctor stopped as he saw Nurse Redheart hurrying their way. "Doctor may I speak with you?" He nodded and they stepped out of the room.

"There is something wrong Doctor."

"What is it?"

"The foal's wings…" Nurse whispered past the lump in her throat. "they haven't tucked in and its been over an hour." The doctor turned white then slightly gray. "It… it can't be…" he began to tremble, quailing at the task of telling the parents. "They have to know." Nurse Redheart said gently. "I only studied it, there was only one reported case…" The doctor was close to tears. Finally he nodded and walked in to tell the parents.

"What do you mean there is no cure?" The mother exclaimed bolting upright. "There was only one other reported case. We never delved into finding a cure."

"So our son can't… fly?" the father asked weakly. The doctor nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry…"

"Perhaps he can have a better life on the ground…" The father said to the mother. I'll take him to an orphanage." The mother broke down and was soothed by the doctor as the father left with the foal to an orphanage in Phillydelphia. "I am sorry son. Perhaps you can find a loving family on solid ground…" a solitary tear ran from the fathers eye as he set the basket down on the front step, knocked twice and flew away. The door opened and the orphanage keeper looked down at the basket, sighed, and brought it in.


	2. Chapter 2

**Just for reference: pretty much the rest of the story is in first person.**

Chapter 2: A Mysterious Adopter

10 years later

"Hey lazy hooves! Wake up!" I groan and roll over to look at who was shaking my from my blissful sleep. The pony that was shaking me finally backed down. He was a small colt that wasn't over 9 years. He was dark green unicorn with sky blue eyes. I sighed and rolled over. "Just give me 5 more minutes Spaz…" Yup you heard right. Spaz. His real name was Sedgeleaf but as a foal he never really grew out of the "random bursts of magic" phase so he was deemed Spaz. "Oh come ON Shadow! You know that means 5 hours to you!" cried Spaz. Just then a spurt of magic came from his horn. It literally blew me out of the bed and into the opposite wall. "Celestia!" I spat out, "I swear, your bursts get stronger every time!" I slowly got up as a midnight blue colored pegasus poked her head up. "What in…" she began to ask but then just shook her head. "Not gonna ask… Come on breakfast is almost ready." Spaz perked up at the mention of food and scampered down the stairs. "Hey Misty…" I said weakly. She laughed slightly and asked, "Another episode?" I grin and that is a sufficient answer for her. "Here, I help you tie up your wings…"

We had breakfast and set about doing our normal chores. I was stuck with dusting everything in the orphanage of course. The orphanage keeper was a very old filly that wasn't the most pleasant in demeanor, but she took care of us for the most part. We all looked out for each other. Myself I looked out for Misty especially. I was kind of smitten with her but I think every colt in the orphanage was. Besides she was the only one who really looked out for me too. It was a normal day, until he showed up.

It was about 6:30 at night and us older ponies were putting the little ones to bed. Then the door banged open downstairs and a gruff sounding stallion asked for the orphanage keeper. I motioned to the stairs implying that I was going to eavesdrop and Misty nodded before continuing to tuck in the foals. I gave one more look at her not knowing it was my last. I headed down the stairs quietly and began to listen. It didn't seem suspicious and I started to head back when I heard the stallion ask the one question I thought I would never hear. "Are there any here that are… Crippled?" I gasped and looked at my wings that were tied to my sides. I had never been able to use them ever since I could remember. There was a small pause and I assumed that the keeper was slowly nodding. "Y-yes we do…" she replied slowly. "A colt of about 15 years." The stallion replied, "May I speak with him?" There was a pause as the keeper nodded before calling, "Shadow? Can you come here please?" I gulped and walked into the room slowly.

"Hello, My name is Darkstar, Do you not have use of your wings?" The stallion asked motioning to my wings that were tied to me. I slowly nodded noticing his surprisingly long horn. " I see…" the stallion turned to the keeper. "May I speak with him in private?" She nodded and let us into her private office and shut the door. Darkstar's horn glowed and there was a soft pop in the air as it was magically soundproofed. We stood there for a moment and finally he said something that floored me. "What if I told you that, for a price, I know people that could give you your wings back?

**That was a tough chapter… I know that I am using Warriors names for most of the names but this is not a crossover. I am just really bad at making my own names.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Surgery

"W-what? Y-y-you can do that?" I exclaimed. "I don't understand. All my life I thought it was impossible. Now come you in to tell me that it is? Why should I trust you?" The stallion sighed, "I know this is hard to understand. If I were in your position I would feel the same. I can't say because I don't know. I specialize in something different than surgery. But I can say I have seen it happen for another pony." I slowly nodded in bewilderment. 'Is this a dream?' I wondered. I sighed and finally nodded, "I suppose I will take that leap of faith. I'll just need to get my things." The stallion shook his head. "We will have everything you need." "Can I say goodbye?" Again he shook his head. "No time. We need to leave." I blinked back tears as I realized I would never see Spaz or Misty again. We walked out into the foyer. "I will take him." The stallion said to the keeper. "How much?" "Free." The keeper replied. "He is crippled." The stallion put a hoof on my shoulder and merely replied, "Not for long." We then blinked away to the surprise of the keeper.

I opened my eyes as I felt raindrops on me. I noticed there were unicorns all with augmented horns shooting bursts of energy at targets in a field to my left. Some were in groups of three, two unicorns and a pegasus. One unicorn covered the pegasus in a shield as he was flying and the other would fire toned down bursts at the pegasus who would try to avoid them. To my right was a levitating obstacle course and pegasus' were flitting through it at almost supersonic speeds. In front of us was a huge compound of buildings varying in heights. I turned to Darkstar and he motioned for me to go into the main building and wait. I saw other stallions with small colts and fillies before returning to the practice fields. They all walked into the main building. "Hey Mustang!" One unicorn was watching the procession and yelled to a pegasus. "Look at all this fresh meat!" The pegasus who I assumed was Mustang chuckled and shook his head. "Lay off 'em Shock! I remember when you first came you were shaking so much!" I immediately took a liking to Mustang and hoped I would get to talk to him some time.

I walked in and saw an illuminated sign 'Unicorns Left: Pegasi Straight: Medical ward Right' I just waited for Darkstar who finally walked in. "Come on Shadow, we are going right." We walk walked down a long hall before going through double doors into a waiting room. There was a white filly that waved us through. We walked into a room with a hospital bed. Darkstar started an IV and began to do a standard checkup. "Are you qualified to do this?" I asked only half joking. He nodded as a red unicorn walked in. "Of course he is qualified." The unicorn said as he was followed by a team of surgeons all unicorns. Darkstar stepped out and the red pony began to measure fluids. "You ready colt?" he asked as he injected the fluid into me. I winced and replied, "As ready as I'll ever be…" I slowly drifted into unconsciousness as a blanket of purely black colored magic enveloped me.


	4. Chapter 4

**Good job if you found the Avatar reference last chapter. Also thanks for staying with me this far.**

Chapter 4: Assessments

After a time that I couldn't define I slowly came to and managed to stay there. I had a strange feeling like I was moving something but my feet and hands were still immobile. My head lolled to my left and I gasped in surprise. A wing was slowly flexing and relaxing in time to what my mind was telling me. I slowly got up and rolled my wings in their joints. It felt amazing. I felt like a foal again discovering I had control of my appendages. The doctor walked in with Darkstar. "How do you feel?" Darkstar asked as the doctor had me go through motions to test the dexterity. I smiled in response. "I'll take that as 'great'." Darkstar laughed. "Get some rest we are going to start flying tomorrow."

The next day I woke up to armored plates that were almost tailor made for me. I quickly put it on admiring the shining black before walking out onto the field. I saw a pegasus quickly finish the course overhead and flit down to land in front of me. I recognized that it was Mustang from yesterday and Darkstar walked up next to him. "This the new colt you were talking about?" Asked Mustang. Darkstar nodded in reply. "You do know that he's an…" Darkstar motioned for him to stop but realized it was pointless. "What?" I asked, thoroughly confused. "Before we tell you I need you to swear your life to this organization." "Of course I do." I nodded. "You guys gave me my wings." "And more." Darkstar sighed. " During the operation one of the unicorns lost focus and… 'ahem' grafted a horn onto you. You are the only existing alicorn that is not royal." I sat down with a dull thud. "Wow…" I shook my head. Mustang looked equally surprised. He then motioned for me to try flying. "Well enough talk. Your first mission is recon for us. So lets get to flying and employing that horn of yours to avoid being seen." Fir the rest of the day we ran through drills on flying and it soon became clear I was a natural. Setting personal bests that rivaled Mustang's.

"Ok, now its time to work on magic. Follow me." I walked with Darkstar over to the practice range. He showed me how to harness my magic to shoot bolts, put up defensive shields, turn invisible, and I managed to harness the power of the horn bomb. I had to build up the charge on my horn and it took all of my concentration. But after two hours of practicing I could fire one at will with little effort. Darkstar smiled after my last bomb, the most powerful one, had wiped out the entire line of dummies and had prompted several others to project shields. "I think its time for recon."


	5. Chapter 5

**Please review if you are reading. Kinda depressed I only got one so far…**

Chapter 5: Recon and Preparations

Dawn came and I got up, put on my armor and practiced the invisible spell a couple more times before walking out to the front of the compound. Darkstar greeted me there. He inserted a small piece of metal into my left shoulder. "Now we know your location and vitals should you get into trouble." He said in response to my quizzical look. I nodded and he pointed southeast. "About 3 klicks that way there is a large city. Go into the castle, stay invisible, and look everywhere for structural weaknesses. The chip also records everything you see through your eyes. Another feature we added. Now get going. We need you back by this afternoon for more training." I nodded and took off veering southeast at close to sonic speed.

Upon arrival I recognized the city. It was Canterlot. I swooped down to the castle of Celestia and became invisible. I snuck past the guards easily and was inside. I looked everywhere and soon found myself in a large ballroom. I went up several flights of stairs and came upon the Princess's royal room. I looked around briefly and left. I studied the structure of the castle intently looking for every possible room before leaving right around the afternoon. I arrived back and Darkstar congratulated me on my success. "That was great Shadow. We have everything we need for the strategists to determine where to blow up the external horn bomb." I stiffened. "Blow up…?" "Yes. You aren't going back are you?" I shook my head. "Of course not. It just surprised me…" "We are the Lunar Republic. Celestia is a tyrant and we will bring her down and usher in the rise of Luna. You are one of us." I nodded. "Of course Darkstar. I will do what ever you need me to do." "Good. Now, enough of these bad thoughts. I must work with you on the kill spells." We walked over to the practice fields and I learned shoot, blow apart, and disintegrate spells for self-defense should it come to that. They didn't require thought. Just the fight or flight instinct. Finally the day came to an end and I tried to get to sleep for the task at hand. It was impossible.


End file.
